Team Europe parts ways with kid’s clothing site Kirondo

Niklas Wirminghaus20 February 2014

Secondhand children’s clothing portal Kirondo is no longer a member of Team Europe’s portfolio. The Berlin company builder has sold its shares in the service to Kirondo’s management team – though Team Europe partners Kolja Hebenstreit and Lukasz Gadowski remain on board as private investors.

Team Europe had a major swing in strategy last summer and, since then, has been sharpening its business focus. In the process, the company builder sold its shares in eCommerce eyewear platform Mister Spex, recruitment service I-Potentials, MyMuesli and magazine The European. Team Europe continues to be involved in portfolio companies Wummelkiste and Delivery Hero – the latter recently received a massive funding round of close to $90m.

Kirondo was founded in June 2013 by Sarah Seeliger and Julius Bertram, though Betram left the startup in September to launch children’s book subscription service Librileo. Since then, the Kirondo management team has been made up of Christopher Deckert, Michael Rüffer and (until November 2013) Team Europe’s Matthias Bellmann.

Now, Kirondo is restructuring its management team again: alongside Rüffer and Deckert, Hendrik Schlereth will be the startup’s third managing director. He has a background in management consulting from his time at Booz & Company.

To give us an insight into what’s been happening at the company and what it has in store for the future, we caught up with co-Managing Director Christopher Deckert…

Last autumn, your cofounder Julius Bertram left the company amid rumours that he was let go. What happened there?

It’s true that in the first days of Kirondo there was some conflict within the team. I’m happy that Julius and Team Europe found an amicable solution – Julius is still a shareholder in Kirondo and I wish him success with his new project.

Kirondo is now an owner-run company. Why did Team Europe step out?

Following the departure of Julius, Michael Rüffer and I sat down with Team Europe and decided how to best facilitate a successful new start for Kirondo. At the end of the process, we took over the shares from Team Europe. For this, I am thankful and am all the more happy that Lukasz and Kolja have invested in the company again as business angels.

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Hendrik Schlereth is now coming on board as the third managing director at Kirondo. Why choose him?

Hendrik and I have known each other for a long time. We studied in Mannheim together, after that I was at Rocket where I helped grow a number of eCommerce companies including Zalando. The rest of the Kirondo team has a similar background. We spent the first few months building the platform and then focused on establishing Kirondo in the market. Hendrik has years of experience in re-marketing from his time as a consultant. Because of that, he is the perfect addition to the team and brings the skills we need to take on upcoming challenges.

In summer both Team Europe and the German Startup Group invested in Kirondo, among others. You haven’t received funding since then, right?

After we came to an agreement with Team Europe and decided to restructure the company, we actually managed to win over some big-name angel investors. We will release who they are before they get put into the commercial register.

What will you be focusing on next with Kirondo?

The next step will be to show parents how much better the second-hand shopping experience is in comparison to marketplaces or offline shopping. We take away all the work of selling your products, while also ensuring for buyers that our products always meet our high-quality standards.

Disclosure: Team Europe is an investor in VentureVillage’s parent company, Vertical Media.